H. L. Mencken
The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of every day. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination—that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves.
RE: Mencken said Confederates fought for self-determination, not Lincoln’s Union side....
That is a profound post. You brought up something I never read from H.L. Mencken before.
Did you ever happen to read anything by Robert J. Ringer? Wrote Looking Out For #1, Winning Through Intimidation and Restoring the American Dream? Libertarian author.
He said John F Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” speech was the opposite of personal freedom for Americans. We all are busy paying taxes, working, giving up rights for our country, paying still more taxes-—to the government we are all working for, directly or indirectly. “for your country.” Not for our family and personal lives and goals by individual freedom. Interesting thought.
I appreciate your post. Will think about it today.